How old were you when you got Baptised? (page 5)

primitivegenius

18 for two reasons........ everyone kept asking when i was gonna........ and i never felt the obligation to get dunked myself, and a person in the cong was getting baptised and i thought at least id have company in the pool so it wouldnt just be me. and i was pretty sure in my arrogance that i couldnt let him get bapt before me cause he never was anything close to spiritual and i tried to be lol. so instead of waiting for a DC or something i got dunked at a circuit and.............. there were 4 of us........... not a good thing for a shy person

maxwell

12

My father got baptized at 11, but I still thought I was doing it at a fairly young age relative to most people, but looking at this thread, I can see that I wasn't all that unique.

mizpah

I wonder if my wife and I were the only parents in the organization who discouraged our children from making rash decisions about baptism? Nearly all of the parents in our congregation were pushing their kids to become baptized. But we wanted ours to be adult enough to make that decision upon their own understanding and not ours.

Perhaps, it was my own previous Baptist experience that gave me a different view. The Baptist church of that era said that a person had to be of a "reasoning age" and had to make his own sincere acceptance of Jesus Christ as a "personal savior."

It turned out that I was baptised three times in my life: Once as an infant in the Methodist church. Once as a teenager in the Baptist church. And then, finally as a young adult at a Watchtower assembly. I trust one of them is valid.

Swan

15

Hapgood

19

I was not born a jw, I willingly joined, but didn't really understand what I was getting into to.

Euphemism

LOL @ Mizpah!

I'm with cruzan and coffee here... I was baptized at 8.

Even most witnesses thought I was too young. My father was the PO, however, so the elders went ahead and did the questions with me, and I could answer them all with no trouble. So they let me get dunked.

There was definitely some competitiveness involved. My older brother had also gotten baptized when he was 8, so I had to at least match him! I wanted to get baptized when I was 7, but my parents wouldn't let me. I was still happy that I beat my brother by six months.

Mainly, though, I wanted to "make progress." I wanted to get "privileges", I wanted the respect of adults, etc. And of course, the thought of doubting whether it was the truth had never even crossed my mind at that age.

glitter

I never got baptised, sure I *wanted* to when I was very small (up until about 11 anyway) but little kids want to do a lot of stupid stuff, doesn't mean you *let* them! The youngest I know of a kid getting dipped was the PO's granddaughter at 9-ish.

sxybrwneyes

16

It was mainly because I was pressured by my family and because all of my friends were doing it, but I definitely did not feel that I was ready for it.

Gopher

16

I'm with Primitivegenius -- I was afraid of what others might think of me (an elder's son) if I waited around too much longer. Plus my sister's friend from our hall was getting baptized, and she was kind of nice-looking!!

Also this baptism choice was presented as a "do you want to serve Jehovah or not -- it's as simple as that" type of choice, without regard to the real implications of serving a man-made organization, having to please local elders no matter where I moved to, etc., etc.

I agree with earlier comments that say if you should have to wait for the "second most important choice", who you will marry, till you're of adult age, then you should not be allowed to make THE most important step (as the JW's call it), that of baptism, until after you reach the legal age of consent.

Jesika

I was 14, but the SOLE reason I got dunked was to get disfellowshiped!!!

9 months later...........at the age of 15 I got the boot and haven't ever tried to go back!!!!!!!

Jes

How old were you when you got Baptised?

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